Horse dragging timber
The photograph is courtesy of the family of George Dey. George took many photographs in his forestry career and some are now shown on this web site. Check under ‘Groups’ and George Dey Collection.
Lovely image of a large Clydesdale horse just finished dragging some trees down to the stacking bay. The horseman is wearing a protective apron to keep his clothes clean and damage free as he has to lift the usually very muddy tree stems in his arms and lift them one end at a time onto the timber stack just in sight behind the horse. The horse has been loosened from the drag and the swingle tree can just be seen at its rear feet with chain lying towards the remains of the drag.
Harness is well worn but very serviceable and note some extra padding inserted over the mane but under the collar perhaps to cover chaffing or to lift the collar a bit to sit more squarely on the chest. Very unusually this horse has what appears to be a riding rein looped over the top of the hems as well as a short leading halter. This would indicate that the horse is ridden to and from work and the short halter that the horse was guided by voice when pulling a load of timber down from the forest.
Timber horses could become very skilled at working their loads and when loads jammed behind a rock or old stump, which occurred frequently, they would often automatically move back a step and pull either to the left or the right to roll the load clear of the obstacle. The horse man usually walking behind the drag would more usually call out ‘back - left’ or ‘back - right’ in whatever horseman terms were used locally. These could be ‘Back – Hie’ or ‘Back – Wheesht’ repeated once or twice.
As the same drag routes were used for quite a number of loads the horse would automatically know when to ease off pulling on steep down slopes as the drag could slide forward of its own accord and sweep it off its rear legs or at a short rising slope start pulling briskly early to get it over the hump.
Any horse dragging stories and information on guidance calls used locally would be very welcome. Unfortunately location and name of horseman is not known>
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Groups: Forestry in Action, George Dey Forestry Collection, Horses at work in Forests, Tools, equipment and clothing